


A Better Man

by Saucery



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, BUT TRUE, Because No Matter What the Smoking Man Says, Canon Compliant, Embedded Images, Embedded Video, Essays, GIF-Assisted Squeeage, Graphic Format: GIF, M/M, Meta, Predictions, Proof of Gay, Psychoanalysis, Ridiculous, Slow Build, So True, Squee, THE TRUTH IS GODDAMN WELL OUT THERE, TRUST THE INSTINCT, The Instinct is Telling You That STEREK IS REAL, Their Love Is So, Werewolves, Why Ship Them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 00:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You make me want to be a better werewolf."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Better Man

* * *

 

See, the thing is, Stiles brings out the  _best_  in Derek. With everyone else, Derek is invariably this swaggering, brutalizing werewolf, but with  _Stiles_ , he has these moments of startling vulnerability that he doesn’t have with anyone else. ANYONE ELSE.

GIFs courtesy of [-beaconhills](http://-beaconhills.tumblr.com/post/25676300909/how-stiles-looks-at-derek):

  

Yes, those are all expressions Derek has when he looks at Stiles. I challenge you - nay, I  _dare_  you - to find a single other character on the entire show that gets  _those_  looks from Derek.  _That often_.

You will find none.

Why?

Because Stiles disarms Derek. Somehow, he effortlessly gets Derek to drop his armor, that iron-wrought aggression Derek uses to keep the world at bay. Stiles just -  _takes him apart_ , lays him bare, in ways that no one else does. That no one else  _can_.

And Derek is a better person with Stiles than he is with anyone else. His most selfless moments are invariably moments in which he’s saving Stiles, for no other reason than, well,  _saving Stiles_.

Derek’s motivations aren’t pure when it comes to Isaac and Boyd and Erica. Not even Scott. Derek’s always trying to manipulate them or train them for the good of the pack, even if he has to pulverize them to do it. He’s never like that with Stiles.  _Never_. He has never manipulated Stiles or lied to him or forced him or beaten him. Ever. (The door-slamming is just posturing; it doesn't even leave a bruise.) Sending Erica to keep Stiles away from danger by hitting Stiles over the head was the one time Derek hurt Stiles (albeit indirectly), but - again - it was to keep Stiles away from danger.

And I hear you (er, hypothetical people?) say, “Ah, but that’s just because Stiles is a human. Derek’s not  _that_  sadistic; he won’t hurt humans the way he can allow himself to hurt werewolves (that can heal). Derek’s just protective of humans because they’re fragile.”

I call bullshit. Because Lydia’s human, but Derek doesn’t give a shit about  _her_. (OH LYDIA BB COME TO ME, I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU.) He doesn’t go out of his way to protect her, even when he knows she’s in trouble. He certainly doesn’t race to her rescue like a freaking lunatic, the way he does when Stiles is being cornered by Peter in a hospital, or when Stiles is being cornered by Isaac at the police station, or when Stiles is being cornered by the kanima at the swimming pool. Derek doesn’t protect Lydia, at all. In fact, he tries to  _kill_  her when he thinks she’s the kanima. Can anyone really imagine he’d be so relaxed about killing Stiles, even if Stiles were somehow implicated in bad things? I think not. Derek would try to find out who was  _really responsible_  for the bad things. Because he wouldn’t believe Stiles was responsible for them, in the first place. He’d find a way to protect Stiles, no matter what.

And then, I hear hypothetical people say: “Okay, fine, but Stiles is friends with Scott, and Scott’s a member of Derek’s pack (even though he’s denying it), so. It makes sense that Derek protects Stiles.”

And, again, bullshit.  _Jackson’s_  also a member of Derek’s pack (even though he’s denying it), and Lydia’s still in love with Jackson  _and_  is in possession of crucial intel about Jackson that might come in use, given the whole kanima situation,  _and_  she has mad Latin skillz that the pack desperately needs. But does Derek ever approach Lydia in the same way? No. Does Derek creep outside her window and sneak into her bedroom and get her to do research for the pack, trusting immediately that she’ll do it all just because she cares about Jackson? No. Does Derek call her whenever he needs help, or the pack does? No. Does Derek go absolutely  _batshit_  if someone threatens her? No. Not only that, but he threatens her  _himself_. (Bad Derek.)

Anyway, my point is, Derek’s kind of a bastard to everyone else. EVERYONE ELSE. Uniformly. For no one else does Derek stick his neck out and risk his life on instinct, the way he does for Stiles. Even when Scott was in danger with Peter, back in season 1, Derek just played it cool and pretended to be on Peter’s side. He was capable of planning. Of  _thinking_.

Has Derek shown any sign of being capable of ‘planning’ or ‘thinking’ in situations where Stiles might come to harm?

The answer is  _no_.

Hell, Derek  _leaps in front of the freaking kanima and gets paralyzed_ , all to protect Stiles, even though Derek  _knows_ , rationally, that the kanima’s claws contain a paralytic toxin. But Derek doesn’t think rationally when it comes to Stiles, does he? He trusts the instinct.

Uh-huh. Think about that for a second.

He TRUSTS. The INSTINCT.

Pretty much the show’s motto, here.

GIFs courtesy of [yeahtylerhoechlin](http://yeahtylerhoechlin.tumblr.com/post/21862247550/and-you-will-never-know-until-youre-tested-x) and [h0tcelebs](http://h0tcelebs.tumblr.com/post/21849958463):

   

Yeah.  _That_  instinct. The protect-your-mate-at-all-costs instinct.

The fact that it’s exactly the same instinct  _Scott_  trusts when he saves  _Allison_?

Is no coincidence, either.

Sterek is being built up to be canon. Deal.

There is literally no other reason to show, in two successive _and overlapping_  scenes, Scott saving Allison by wolfing out  _and_ Derek saving Stiles by wolfing out. (God bless episode 2x02.)

So even though I concur that Sterek needs a slow build before it becomes ‘canon’, I’d like to argue that we have  _already been_ getting a slow build. 

Don’t believe me?

Listen to Jack Nicholson.

Because he always tells the truth.

Even when you can’t handle it.

GIFs courtesy of [macedonum](http://macedonum.tumblr.com/post/19961221280) and [-beaconhills](http://-beaconhills.tumblr.com/post/25676300909/how-stiles-looks-at-derek):

  

UH-HUH.

THAT, RIGHT THERE, IS THE ENTIRE STEREK RELATIONSHIP. IN A NUTSHELL.

DEREK HAS THIS “AILMENT”. ALSO, HE’S AN ASSHOLE. THAT HATES PEOPLE. BUT STILES? MAKES HIM WANT TO BE A BETTER MAN. WOLF. WOLF-MAN.

HELL, STILES  _ALREADY MAKES HIM_  A BETTER MAN.

JUST BY BEING AROUND. JUST BY BEING  _HIMSELF_.

And that? Is how I envision the Sterek ship taking form in canon. That’s how I envision Jeff Davis doing it, because that’s how he  _has_  been doing it. So far. All the little touches, the life-saving, the startlingly selfless sacrifices, sacrifices that Derek has shown no sign of making for  _anyone else_. All those moments when Stiles makes Derek a better man. Just.  _All of them_.

This? Is our slow build, people. We’re  _getting it_. 

Jeff is just going to keep building them up like this, drawing them closer and closer, until - BAM! They’re together. Officially. But it’ll be such a smooth transition that everyone will already know about them getting together, anyway. The rest of the pack probably already has a betting pool. It’s ridiculous. But also true.

(Also, if anyone wants to write an  _As Good as it Gets_  fusion with Nicholson!Derek and Hunt!Stiles - and Kennear!Danny - then please, do go ahead. Heh.)

**In conclusion: Sterek is canon because Stiles makes Derek want to be a better man.**

And that’s the gospel truth.

AMEN.


End file.
